The scent of the burning flesh, and blood filled the air with its awful aroma. Tall majestic buildings that were once great lay in rubble. Blood seemed to be splattered everywhere.
The decaying city seemed to be lifeless except for the occasional sound of gun fire and the whine of plasma shots in reply.
"This place is hell." was the thought of the Sangheilian Spec. Ops. Soldier, his name was Zuka Vadumee.
He surveyed the carnage from atop one of the buildings that was miraculously still standing. From his vantage point he could see the human soldiers valiantly defend what little of the city remained against hordes of Covenant soldiers. Many had fallen on both sides, more so on the humans.
"Zuka, where are you?" barked the voice of the Spec. Ops. Commander, coming from Zuka's helmet.
Zuka touched the radio transmitter on his helmet and said "I'm atop one of the human buildings Commander."
"Zuka we have received orders to go to a human facility and find a team that went missing."
"Missing, what exactly do you mean by missing?" asked Zuka as he descended the many levels of the building.
"We received a report from the team saying they had entered the facility, that transmission was a day ago, they haven't reported back since then." replied the Commander.
"Then they're most likely dead." said Zuka as he exited the building.
"I know, but the Hierarchy gave us the mission anyways." said the Commander.
Zuka walked a little ways to his camp. As he entered the camp he could see grunts checking their breathing equipment, his Sangheili brothers were busy checking their weapons.
Zuka then entered the armory and grabbed his personal arsenal of a Particle Beam Rifle, a Plasma Rifle, a Needler, a few Plasma Grenades, and a Plasma Sword. He stowed his Beam Rifle over his back, the Plasma Rifle on his right leg, the Needler he put on his lower back, the Grenades were stowed on his belt, and the plasma sword was placed on his left leg. He then exited the armory and headed to his commanders outpost.
As he entered the outpost he could see the other members of his squad getting ready for the mission ahead. He also spotted his Commander talking with the Minister of Deceit and Punishment. The only twins of the San 'Shyuum race outside of High Charity.
"May I inquire as to what is so important that you have to send a Spec. Ops. unit, and a pair of hunters?" asked the Commander.
"I have sent you and your team on this mission to retrieve the team that went in there as well as something of great value to our war with the humans." said Deceit.
"What exactly is it that we need to retrieve?" said the Commander.
"Something of great importance, that's all I know." said Punishment.
With that said the Field Master turned and left, followed by his two Honor Guards.
"He's lying." said Zuka.
"I know, but we'll find our answers at the facility." said the Commander.
666
The wind blew lightly against Zuka's face. He rode on the wing of a Spectre. He turned to look behind him to see how the rest of the convoy was fairing. The other Spectre kept pace with his. In the back was a large, lumbering, transport vehicle called the Shadow. It carried the grunts and the hunter pair.
The hunters disturbed Zuka, not because they were walking tanks of death and destruction, but because hunters were only sent for two reasons. Reason 1 was that they were sent to kill everything, and reason 2 was that they were sent to retrieve artifacts of utmost importance to the Prophets A pair of hunters accompanied any team meant that the higher ups suspected there to be a lot of trouble.
They reached their destination without running into any humans. The facility was domed shaped. The black obsidian that surrounded the building reminded Zuka of some evil beast coiled and patiently waiting for its victim to come within range.
Zuka jumped off as soon as the Spectre came to a halt. He grabbed his beam rifle and scanned the building for any humans waiting to spring an ambush. He found none and proceeded to the buildings entrance. The other Unggoy and Sangheili followed shortly after. He came up to the door to see it completely sealed off by a metal barrier.
"Well have to find a different entrance." said the Commander.
The Commander than began giving orders to his soldiers to flank left and right of the building to find another entrance. However his orders would be in vain, as one of the hunters marched passed Zuka, lifted his foot and slammed it into the door sending it flying.
"Look, I found an entrance." said the hunter in a sarcastic tone, to the stunned Commander at the display of the hunters' strength.
The Commander quickly regained his composure and motioned for a few grunts and elites to enter the building. There was a tense moment as the others waited for the team that went in to give it the all clear. A lone grunt came back out a waved with his hand showing that it was all clear. Zuka moved in with the rest of the team and entered the building.
Place: A.I. containment facility.
Time: The instant the hunter ruefully knocked on the door.
"Crap." was the thought of the A.I., Aveon.
Aveon had enough trouble with the fact that she had somehow lost contact with the entire base because of the incident in Delta Labs. Now she had ghost signals appearing on her radar through out the base. The worst of all was that she had absolutely had no idea what the hell happened. The one thing Aveon hated more than the bastard Dr. Betruger, was not knowing what was going on.
Now that the Covenant showed up she would probably have to end up terminating herself to risk not being captured by the enemy. However, there was possibly another option. It was long shot, but maybe she could use these Covenant soldiers to find out what was happening, and if she held them off long enough she might be rescued by the UNSC marines. A plan began to form in her head, she smiled.
The Commander immediately sent a few of his troops to fan out and search the building. Zuka looked around the reception room and noticed that a few things weren't right about the situation and the room.
"Something isn't right." said Zuka.
"Oh, and what would that be?" asked the Commander.
"There are no plasma burns, bullet holes, or blood." said Zuka as he looked around the room.
"You assume that a fight would have happened here?" the Commander questioned.
"This would have been an excellent place for the humans to set an ambush. The balconies above would give their soldiers an excellent position of attack, their soldiers could also use the desk as a form of cover. Also the only entrance is the door we just came through, that would be an excellent choke point." said Zuka.
The other remaining Covenant soldiers looked around at the places Zuka described. A few grunts raised their weapons somewhat as if expecting an ambush.
"Also the biggest thing that annoys me about this place is that there are no alarms going off." Zuka stated.
"I know, if there was a breach, or for that matter an invasion going on there would definitely be an alarm going off." said one of the hunters in its warbled language.
The Commander was about to say something but was cut off by one of the grunts that came back from searching the building.
"Commander, we found something." squeaked the grunt in its high pitched voice.
"What is it?" the Commander grumbled.
"Me don't know." said the grunt.
"Follow me, I'll show you." said the same grunt.
The remaining squad followed the grunt through several rooms. They arrived in a circular room with an elevator at its center. The elevator was gigantic. They could fit the entire squad plus the hunters and still have room to spare.
"It appears as if most of the facility lies beneath." said the Commander.
"Zuka, Fusa, Juko, you three will descend first and secure the area beneath." the Commander ordered.
The three elites nodded to the Commander and got on the elevator. Zuka pressed the down button, the doors closed, and the elevator began its descent. Soft music played from the speakers of the elevator. The elites were tense the whole ride down. Fusa got so annoyed by the dull music that he shot the speaker with his plasma rifle. The other elites turned and glared at the elite for startling them. He just shrugged. Zuka rolled his eyes at the foolish elite and muttered something along the lines of "dumb ass."
When the elevator finally hit the bottom the elites charged out expecting an attack, but the only problem was that there was no attack. Zuka signaled them to fan out and secure the perimeter.
"Commander we have secured the lower floor." said Juko.
"Good, we'll be down their shortly." said the Commander.
The elites agonizingly waited for the elevator to bring the rest of the troops down. Zuka examined the lower room. It was another reception area. There were chairs and a desk, a sign blazed behind it with the human letters U.A.C. He went behind the desk and examined the computer screens. There were three screens, the one on the far left showed assignments of various personnel, the center one showed some of the receptionist's personal logs, the one on the far right showed different camera recordings. Zuka scrolled through the various camera views.
Zuka saw many different hallways, all of them were empty. There were absolutely no humans on the viewing screens. He saw a tab in the corner that read PREVIOUS DAY. He clicked on the tab and new images appeared. There were humans walking around going about their normal business.
As Zuka scrolled through the various images something caught his eye. It was a human demon staring at room filled with other humans that were discussing something. There was one human with a white coat, he looked like a doctor, another in a brown coat, and there was apparently one marine officer.
On Screen: Meeting Room
"I'm here because there seems to be some very serious problems." said the one in the brown coat.
"Oh, really? Do I need to remind you of the ground breaking work that were doing here?" said the one in the white coat.
"No, but I've been authorized by the board to look at everything." said the other human.
"The board authorized you? Hmm, the board doesn't know the first thing about science. All they want is something to make them more money. Some product. Don't worry they'll get their product." said the doctor.
"After how many accidents? Tell me Betruger. Why are so many workers spooked? Complaining, spooked, requesting transfers off the planet?" the human questioned.
"They simply can't handle life here. They're exhausted and overworked. If I had a larger, more competent staff, and a bigger budget. Even these few accidents could have been avoided." replied the doctor.
"I'm afraid you'll get nothing more until my report is filed with the board. I will need full access Doctor Betruger, Delta included. I won't have any difficulties doing this will I?" said the human.
"Only if you get lost Swann. Just stay out of my way. Amazing things will happen here soon. You just wait." the doctor said with venom in his voice.
"Let's go." the human said as he left with his military officer escort.
Back in the Lower Reception area.
Zuka shifted uneasily with what the doctor had said.
"Are the things this man is talking about the reason behind the disappearance of the previous team, and why we haven't encountered any human resistance?" Zuka pondered.
Zuka scrolled through the various cameras, but most of the cameras either showed static, or just showed a black screen. He then turned his attention to the various assignments of the staff, but found nothing interesting. After that he looked at the receptionist's personal log. Most of it was gossip, but there was one thing that did interest him. There was a log on missing personnel.
He looked in on the log and found something, very disturbing. There were logs on how people went into rooms and never came back, almost as if they had vanished. Another part of the log showed other personnel that were killed in numerous accidents.
Zuka left the terminals as soon as he heard the elevator platform land. He walked away from the terminal, to face the Commander. The grunts, and the other elites walked pass Zuka to secure the rest of the reception room.
"I think I know where we need to go." said Zuka.
"Where?" questioned the hunter before the Commander could reply.
"To Delta Labs." said Zuka.
666
Location: AI Room
Time: While Zuka reached was in the Main Lobby
Aveon watched one of the Elites look through the various terminals. She watched as he accessed different cameras, files, and logs. This elite was obviously very intelligent, because it understood the English language. He moved away from the terminals and met who appeared to be his Commanding officer, two hunters stepped off the elevator, and one of them addressed the elite.
"So they are going to Delta Labs....Perfect." said Aveon in childish voice.
666
"This is a breach in the LAW!"
"No it is not. There has been no angelic interference or demonic. It is completely the humans doing."
"They will not be able to survive them."
"They have come along ways since they were exiled from Eden."
"They are still not ready for the End War!"
"Let us consider this as a trial and gage their potential"